‘Professor Kambule took education and made it a political act,” said Sipho Seepe, a higher education and strategy consultant, about the late Soweto mathematician, philanthropist and political activist, Professor Thamsanqa Wilkinson Kambule. ‘He made sure that black excellence [was] a central part of his teachings. He taught by example and he — moved more towards the classroom than to politics.”
Last week the South African public learned of Kambule’s death from a lung infection. He was 88.
Former pupils and those influenced by him outside the classroom have lauded him, not only as a teacher but as an activist who sought the best for others.
‘First of all his aim was for black children to be mathematically literate. But because there was a lot of political instability during our days at Orlando High School, he would encourage us always to be politically conscious,” said former Orlando High pupil Kaizer Motaung, chair of Kaizer Chiefs and one of many Kambule taught.
Pansy Tlakula, the Independent Electoral Commission’s chief executive, who was at Orlando High when Kambule was principal, remembers him as ‘a disciplinarian”: ‘What he’d do as soon as the bell rang [was] immediately close the gates and as a result the school became known for its sense of discipline.”
At a ceremony honouring Kambule in 1999, former president Thabo Mbeki said: ‘Despite all the obstacles which apartheid put in his path, he continued without fear in educating and instilling many generations of black students with the skills of mathematics and the skills of life.”
Mbeki bestowed on Kambule the Order of the Baobab in gold for ‘distinguished service above and beyond the call of duty”.
Kambule’s former pupils include Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe and 1984 Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu.
He was renowned for demystifying mathematics and teaching that education is about humility. He once said that ‘the more educated you are, the more humble you should become”.
In 1997 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of the Witwatersrand for his commitment to teaching maths and in 2006 the University of Pretoria honoured him with a doctorate in education.
The National Science and Technology Forum has named one of its research awards after him. Sponsored by the National Research Foundation, the TW Kambule NRF Research Awards are made to four black individuals in South Africa who have made outstanding contributions to science, engineering and technology and who are role models.
Kambule was the founder member of the Kambule Trust, which raises funds for science and technology education.
Thamsanqa Wilkinson Kambule. Born January 15 1921; died August 7 2009